For the first time in his more than two-year campaign against Herbalife, the billionaire investor will take his argument directly to the Hispanic community he believes is being defrauded by the diet-shake company.

Ackman, who now has a $2 billion bet that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme, will be the key speaker at a town hall meeting in Chicago on Jan. 12 sponsored by the League of United Latin American Citizens, also a critic of Herbalife.

“He is our brother in the struggle,” said LULAC’s Julie Contreras, the activist who is organizing the event.

Contreras has helped 21 Hispanics file complaints against Herbalife with the Illinois Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission Representatives from the Illinois AG’s office and the FTC, both of which are investigating Herbalife, are also slated to appear on the panel, which will focus on frauds targeting Latinos.

Ackman’s presence at the event, to be held at a local church, is likely to be controversial.

Although LULAC and Ackman agree on Herbalife, they’ve kept their distance from each other. Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund had donated $10,000 to the group a few months before the Herbalife battle erupted. Both parties claimed it was a fluke, and LULAC gave the money back.

Since then, Herbalife, which denies being a pyramid, has donated some $40,000 to LULAC members around the country. The national office of LULAC demanded they return it, but Contreras said not all have done so.

Contreras, an unpaid volunteer, acknowledged Ackman has a financial stake in the Herbalife outcome. “But we have the same agenda, and that is to remove something that is harming our nation and our community,” she said.